Brainiacs Unite
When members of Mensa get together, the conversations can range from the deep to the bizarre. To join the elite group, applicants must score in the top 2% of the population on an accepted standardized intelligence test. Roughly 5 million Americans are eligible to join the brainy club. Last month the Greater Los Angeles Area Mensa Convention was held at the Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Culver City. We asked for some answers.
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Gene Schneider
56, Retired Computer Scientist
Ridgecrest
What’s your IQ?
When I was in seventh grade it was 152. I haven’t been tested since.
Did your IQ help in your job?
IQ is the ability to take IQ tests and to see patterns and organization. That stood me in great stead being a computer scientist.
What are you dumb about?
Social retardation. I’m a stereotypic introvert.
Who joins Mensa?
Largely people who don’t have any other social outlet. To many, many people, Mensa is family.
Smartest person ever?
Imhotep in the fourth dynasty of ancient Egypt, the Leonardo da Vinci of his time. I’m a closet Egyptian.
How do Mensans get wild?
We have a group called the Sexuality SIG (special interest group). I’m not in it, but that’s one of our most popular groups.
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Jerry Ghigliotti Jr.
57, Attorney
Marin County
What is your IQ?
IQ is difficult to measure on the extreme high and low ends. They’ve estimated mine somewhere between 132 and 165. It varies a lot.
Does IQ play a role in your job?
You can’t be dumb and pass the California Bar exam. Just getting in the profession you have to be smart, although there are some people I have questions about.
What’s your weakest area?
Emotionally. I have not in my entire 57 years of life been able to figure out women.
Smartest famous person?
Benjamin Franklin. He had a grasp of democracy and international relations. He got along really well with women.
How do Mensans get wild?
We’re a lot less wild now than in the past. Mensans tend to not have the inhibitions the rest of society has.
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Theresia Heyden
81, Volunteer Nurse Practitioner for the World Health Organization
Oceanside
What’s your IQ?
It was 182, but I had cerebral malaria so it’s probably not as good.
How did you get malaria?
I worked with Stone Age people for six months in Irian Jaya, the undeveloped side of Papua New Guinea administered by Indonesia.
Does your IQ help in your job?
A high IQ is always good as long as you don’t go bananas.
Where is your IQ strongest?
I’m an idealist and I love people. I’m a good diagnostician because where I go, I must diagnose without a hospital. I teach but I also learn, even from the Stone Age people.
Who joins Mensa?
I’ll be very honest with you. We joined Mensa in Hamburg at the university and got a free lunch. After World War II we didn’t have ration cards and we were hungry.
Has Mensa been good for you?
I haven’t had time for Mensa. I want to work until I’m 100 and then write a book.
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Karen Bauernschmidt
52, Desktop Publisher
Phoenix, Ariz.
What’s your IQ?
It’s 142. That is only my IQ. I could tell you my shoe size, too. They’re all just statistics.
When did you know you were smart?
I didn’t know until I was 30. I couldn’t figure out why I kept
getting fired.
Not everyone with a high IQ joins Mensa. Who does?
I instantly walk in and have a conversation without judgment or reservations. It is my adopted family.
What’s the downside of a high IQ?
It startles people, sometimes uncomfortably so. It’s not good for marriages.
Would you date a Mensa member?
I married more than one.
You’ve been married to more than one Mensa member?
Intelligence has nothing to do with marital success.
